


To my Country goes my Heart

by AncientPhoenix, Catalonia (AncientPhoenix)



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:40:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22611136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AncientPhoenix/pseuds/AncientPhoenix, https://archiveofourown.org/users/AncientPhoenix/pseuds/Catalonia
Summary: The life of a country is often lonely, the passing of mortals a common trend...but the cities, they may come and go, but they never REALLY leave.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ApricotMarshy](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=ApricotMarshy).
  * Inspired by [Namimori](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15978725) by [takoyaki (tamagoyaki)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamagoyaki/pseuds/takoyaki), [tamagoyaki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamagoyaki/pseuds/tamagoyaki). 



Berlin was famous for one thing-the wall. It only encompassed a small part of its history, yet that was what people came to see. The place where a country was divided, where families were kept apart, where lives were lost.

Germany did not remember Berlin for its wall. It was often easy to assume that’s all there was to Berlin, that it was otherwise just a normal town, but the reincarnations of Berlin new otherwise.

Leonie Von Kursch had been born the day Berlin died. She awoke to memories of a war, of pain, of sorrow, yes. She did not focus on these memories. Instead she focused on the more interesting ones, the sunny skies and beautiful meadows, the happy families and beautiful scenery, the small shops and their homemade wares. She heard music and laughter, smelled fresh baked bread and hearty beer over the smoke of wood fires. Berlin was far more than just a wall...and Leonie knew that from the moment she was born.

When Leonie was 15 months old she went to the park with her mother. While there, a tall, muscular, stern blonde man in exercise clothes came jogging through. He stopped near the bench where her mother sat and started chatting with her about the weather while he caught his breathe. He looked down at her, playing in the grass by her mother’s side, and as their eyes met a million words passed between them that she had never spoken. Flashes of a hand helping her up, of healing her injuries rushed past. She felt tears well up in her eyes but she just smiled at this man-at her home. Berlin was hers, for now, but it would always be his.

when Leonie was 15, she started getting self conscious. Below the memories of generations past of Berlins, she was still a teenager. She was still self conscious of her body, and the long scar stretching across her torso. She’s considered hiding it with make up or wearing a one piece, but she could recall the last few reincarnations trying the same thing and regretting it. There was nothing to be ashamed of. She was who she was, and her history was her history-good and bad.   
  


When Leonie was 23 she left Berlin. She’d spent years in her town, already knowing everything about the streets and buildings and people who had grown up there. She traveled to Munich to go to a larger University, and it was there she met a fellow city.

Klause was 48 and a teacher at the University. The minute they met they felt the pull, and soon after they were meeting in coffee shops discussing the intricacies of having hundreds of years of memories dancing around your head. 

That was how she spent the next 4 years. 


	2. The City of Lakes and Saints

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the global superpower of America, the 32nd state has a capital that’s often underestimated.

Hannah was born in the deep winter, when a winter vortex was passing through, pushing temperatures into the negative twenties. She came into the world screaming for air, and found comfort in the chill.

She grew up with memories of fur traders and canoes, lighthouses and a bloody war. She saw a medical legacy born and a a mascot grow. She watched her people join a growing Union of scattered territories, and saw herself grow into a place of comfort in the cold North.

She was St. Paul. The Last City of the East, the Saintly City, the Pigs Eye.

She was a Minnesota daughter, but more importantly an American daughter. She grew up alongside a mix of cultures, learning to survive but also to live in all climates.

Hannah grew to love her city. It was a massive mural of color and cultures, welcoming people from all over the world. There was the beautiful Hmong community, the stoic Somalis, the hardworking Hispanics, and hundreds more. Religious cultures from every corner of the earth, embassies for her countries friends and enemies scattered her streets. Architecture from the earliest days of St Paul to the newest modern trends. 

And while Hannah loved every inch of her city, she knew it wasn't an easy place to live. Confusing corners and one way streets, racism and homophobia against any and all differences, high costs of living that made it a struggle to survive in her city. 

Hannah loved being St. Paul, but she wished St. Paul would change. 

So Hannah moved. She went to Princeton in New Jersey and studied political science, and learned how to say things so that people listened, how to make the changes worth it to those around her. No one was a friend or an enemy, merely a means to change her city. She received a job offer from the Russia Embassy and turned it down, because that was most definitely Ivan's signature there at the bottom, and instead accepted a position as a Public Affairs Specialist with the Department of Defense, and then she joined community outreach programs and churches and any and all groups working to help her city, and burned herself out. 

It was her country that came to her rescue. Sitting on the floor of her bathroom, warm leather brushed her shoulders and hands rubbed her back, and she looked up to see glowing blue eyes and sun bleached hair and she cried into the arms of her nation.


	3. Munich

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Munich was lost until he found someone who understood

Klaus was born to war, not to blood between countries, but blood between family. His mother was killed by his father shortly after he was born, and though he could understand what was happening-as decades of lives not yours will do-he couldn't stop it. He could not help. Klaus grew up in the darkness, the awful incident of his childhood stirring up the darker memories of his cities history that would rather have waited to appear. Instead of experiencing them in school, when learning about the subjects would bring them forward, they tormented him in his dreams. Klaus suffered for years as a 'troubled child'. He skipped school and ran the streets of his city, using the memories of the last Munich to navigate the streets. The one thing about his city was that it rarely really changed. Instead it flowed with time, using what it had. It wasn't until he was in high school that Klaus was freed. A kind teacher, as it often is, who saw what was needed and gave what support they could. It was enough to get Klaus to a university in the city, where he studied the only thing he knew-history. And life changed for Klaus when he met Leonie. A city herself, seeking to separate herself from the past. He did not understand it himself, He was Klaus who was Munich, and Munich was Klaus. He lived to remember the history that others sought to forget, even himself at times. Leonie was studying art in Munich, and their meeting was purely chance. He had been using a shortcut when he stumbled-literally-into her, not expecting to meet anyone else on his route. He was about to apologize before they could yell at him, but when he looked down into her eyes recognition sparked in him, something more than his human half. "Berlin" he greeted, a smile curving onto his face, as he felt joy in the idea of sharing history with another like him. "Oh, Munich! Its nice to meet you!" Leonie greeted, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ears. And from there it was history. They both had class, so they met up around lunchtime at a cafe in the commons. They chatted about their counterparts meeting, and then themselves. They had to depart eventually, but numbers were exchanged and more meetings scheduled. Eventually Klaus found himself feeling something new, though he wasn't quite sure what it was. This only lasted for 4 years.


	4. Senatobia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The South has its own challenges

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More at the bottom, but know you can help me write by giving me cities and their countries to fuel my imagination!

The South wasn't like the north. It was all spread out, even in the big city the tallest building couldn't compare to those int he further regions. Especially not in a state like Mississippi, where things were always stemming as much from the past as for the future. Amanda understood this completely. 

Amanda was born as Senatobia died, not peacefully in their sleep, like the previous, but in the hands of respiratory distress in a hospital room, surrounded by cards and flowers and handmade gifts. Amanda was born a floor down, screaming at the loss of such a kind man, crying for the people hurt by his death. 

Amanda soon became Manda, and grew up in the dirt and grass, catching softballs and swimming in lakes. She grew up with a wave of followers, one of the popular kids at school. In middle school they started experimenting with different art mediums, and before long they were on their way to majoring in art in college. She attended a local community college and then went on to study cosmetology, even competing in a nail competition. From the outside, it looked like the perfect life. 

It didn't show that Manda had lived with her dad from the time she was 13 after they divorced, or that she had two children with a man who left her in a new house with no money. It didn't tell people how she was engaged when she had her third child, only to find out her fiance was having an affair with a married woman. 

This wasn't anything special to Manda. She had memories of similar issues, an worse ones, so she persevered. She wasn't a slave on the run from her masters, A widow from a bloody war, or a soldier fighting because they'd been drafted with a child back home. There were far worse things that could happen. 

Still, Manda was a city, and she had a duty to do. So once a week every year she ran off, sometimes with her children, but more often alone, and visited the things that made her Senatobia. The old plantation home at the end of main street, the field where a band of tribes once lived, the graves where some of those tribe members had been buried. She visited the local community college and talked to these students or helped with that event, and she went to a little cottage in the woods that was vacant more often than not, and dusted and cleaned for when its owner returned. 

One year, this week had come and gone when 2 blonde men showed up at her house. She met the eyes of the shorter one and recognition sparked, warmth filling her even though this was the first time she had met him. She was tempted to run forward and envelope the both of them, but instead she greeted them both and led them inside. Th shorter one gazed at the two children playing in the living room, watching as another ran in from the hall. The children stopped for only a moment to look at the two men before going back to playing, as kids tend to do. Her youngest daughter toddled over to the two, offering them a plastic carrot. They both smiled and the taller one accepted it, the other going to help her make a cheeseburger as it was "way better than carrots". Amanda laughed and let them play with the kids, joining them. Eventually the two gestured to the kitchen, and soon enough they all sat at the table there, Amanda across from the two and a pitcher of lemonade between them as they'd declined any sweet tea. 

"Well I'll be. The last time you came to see us was, what, seventy years ago?" Manda starts.

"it was-"

"Hush up, I don't need no excuses. We know how things get." Manda pulls a set of keys out of a drawer by fridge. "It's been maintained, though you really should come by more often. That garden is unmanageable if your gone too long." Manda explains, passing over the key and lock. "It was right where Robert left it."

"Thanks Senatobia. I really appreciate y'all taking care of it for me." The shorter one says, grabbing the keys.

"You know we don't mind America. It's the least we can do. So this is your brother?" Manda pours both boys a glass as they've yet to do so themselves. 

"It's nice to meet you Senatobia. I'm Canada." 

"Thought so, Annamae met you, back in 45 I think. Its nice to meet you myself though. You boys planning on staying long?"

"Maybe. We don't have a meeting for a month and we managed to talk ourselves into getting that time off. Texas won't join us for another week or two though. You think you'll be able to stop by? It seems like you've got your hands full now."

"If you don't mind I can bring them with. I know Ava would love them woods, though Emery might make a scene at first."

"We'd love to have them." Canada replies for his brother. "How old is Kellan?" 

"7, almost 8" Amanda says happily. "Y'all need anything while your there?"

"No, we're fixin' to stop at Wal-Mart before we head in, and Texas will make another stop on their way up, so we should be good. "

"Let me know if anything come up, you hear. I'll bring over some crawdads when I come over and we can fix something up."

"Dang that sounds good. Alright, we best head over. See you later Amanda." 

Smiling at the boys as they pile into an overloaded pick up she waves them off. "Enjoy your boys weekend."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading. If you'd like to help out with the next chapter, comment a city, the country its in, and anything you feel is an important part of its history or culture! If you have an idea for the OC you can add that as well though I can't promise it will be used.


	5. Catalonia and her Claims

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catalonia has always had its differences with Spain, and recently Barcelona's been feeling them among her people more and more...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll admit I've been excited to write this one, as I have a soft spot in my heart for Catalonia. I always imagined it as a female with a rather strained relationship with Spain as of late, who enjoys messing with Romano and cares for her and Spain's cities like a doting older sister. That said I don't speak Catalan (Despite my best efforts) and therefore may mess up a bit with this as I've somehow managed to misplace my notes.

Barcelona was old. He could remember a small tribe all the way back to 5000 years before Israel dealt with Jesus and Egypt fought about Moses. The memories weren't as great from back then, as Barcelona hadn't really been Barcelona, but Gaia knew what it would become and so it remembered. Much clearer in his mind were the Romans, who used the area for a military camp, _castrum _.__ They'd used the harbor and made coins and from there Barcelona had only grown. Not so pleasant were the memory of Germania and his Visigoths, but they had made Barcelona the capital of Hispania for several years, so there were some rather pleasant and clear memories from then. 

One of the greatest times for both Barcelona and Catalonia was when the Arabs came. There was peace and cultural exchange, though the religion tax on the Christians and Jews had been a bit racist. Scientific growth had been incredible as the Muslim and Christian communities actually _talked _. Then somehow it had turned to bloodshed. Most of _Catalonia _was either killed or enslaved, the Barcelona of that time included. and things only changed with the Unification.____

____When Aragon and Castille had picked Madrid to be the center of power Barcelona had felt the change. Catalonia had come to her home and together they had cried, sobbing over the ache even as the economic changes made them weak._ _ _ _

____History was infinitely brighter going forward, and it was always good to have less blood in your soil. There was a short civil war and some anarchy, but that soon became urbanization and lots of immigration. Catalonia stopped by less and less, staying only for events like the Olympics or political meetings._ _ _ _

____Barcelona was young when it held its first world meeting, greeting the countries that came to one of his hotels alongside Espana and Catalonia. He felt like a family, and it didn't hurt he was getting paid too, though it would all go in his college savings._ _ _ _

____That was the first time Emanuel got to meet any other cities. St. Paul had come to take notes for America, they were Hannah now. Japan had brought Okinawa, though they went by Shinme, and Austria had brought a child with, maybe Vienna? He was carefully keeping them away from any of the nations, only Hungary and Prussia managing to get close enough to meet them._ _ _ _


End file.
